Why do Toronto Maple Leafs fans keep cheering for their team?

No, this time that task fell to Rex Murphy, who in a scathing monologue as part of his weekly commentary segment on CBC’s The National excoriated the Toronto Maple Leafs for their losing record over the last 45 years.

“Sorry is not something you get to say. Sorry is what you become.” Wow. Between this and Cherry’s Ontario rant, it’s tough to believe that Brian Burke will let these things slide when it comes to renewing the contract for Hockey Night in Canada.

But Murphy has a point: Toronto really is a hockey-mad city with a team that gives nothing back to its fan base.

Fans are cultivated from childhood, with Leafs players visiting classrooms and stoking dreams of Stanley Cup glory. They grow up loving the team, and when they reach their 30’s they find their love has gone all for naught. They see empty seats beside the ice as high-powered season ticket holders go for sushi instead of watching the game. They save for weeks to buy tickets that are too expensive for the working-class fans who love the game.

Photo by Mike Cassese, Reuters

Rex doesn’t have a solution for the Leafs, but I do, and it’s a simple one: just stop cheering for this hockey team.

It’s radical, I grant, and it sounds really stupid, but it can work.

In Vancouver, for example, Canucks fans are oft-accused of being bandwagon supporters. That’s true in many cases, and it’s shameful for people to have to admit it. But it works. Support for the team was at its height in the mid-1990’s, after the Canucks made a sweetheart run to the Stanley Cup Final. The support dropped off quick as the Canucks fell out of playoff contention from 1996 to 1999. It was a dismal time for the team, which drew speculation they could be moved to another city. Regular season tickets could be had in giveaways.

Photo by Jenelle Schneider, PNG

You see now the results of a fan base abandoning its team en masse in the 90’s. It hasn’t brought the team a Stanley Cup, but they at least give fans an opportunity to see a winning game in the playoffs.

And so it could be with the Maple Leafs. Stop going to games. Stop saving for tickets. Stop wearing the jersey and stop hoping that the current situation could yield a winning team.

It is deflating already for the Leafs to come out on the ice to sustained cheers and empty seats in the front rows. Just imagine what an incentive there would be to improve the team if there were empty seats in the balcony, too.

Photo by Darren Calabrese, National Post

Now I’m aware this isn’t a realistic proposal. It’s near-impossible to not cheer for a team that you’ve loved for so long. But what other incentive is there to improve your team, than to break up with it until they’ve changed?

In any normal hockey franchise, a team’s lousy performance means lower revenues. Not Toronto. So just imagine the shock for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment when they discover that a strong, sustained boycott by the fan base can damage the bottom line.

I say this for the benefit of fans who invest far more emotion into this team than what it’s worth. You’ve not gotten a return on your investment in eight years. So pull your support, and maybe, finally, management will react accordingly.